18' Gartside 93a Cutter (2023) - PHOSPHORESCENCE

I began building this Paul Gartside cutter about 12 years ago in my (limited) spare time while employed as the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Wooden Boat Factory. Wanting to keep my craft skills alive I leased a space adjacent to the boat factory to serve as a small boat shop. With a growing organization and the birth of my sons, it turned out there would be many years when I could barely afford a few dozen hours to dedicate to the project. The process however was fulfilling, sometimes humbling, and experiment in resolve and patience. We moved the boat from our shop in Philadelphia to Brooksville Maine in 2022, where she waited for hardware to be completed. Phosphorescence was launched by Seal Cove Boat Yard in the summer of 2023.

This particular Gartside cutter – known as hull 93a (gartsideboats.com) can be found on his website under the heading ‘Dinghies and Daysailors’. The hull was designed for strip plank construction. With Paul’s blessing my friend and boatbuilder/furniture maker Geoff McKonly (geoffmckonlyfurniture.com) redeveloped the construction plans for carvel construction. I assembled the backbone from Black Locust sourced from an Amish sawyer here in Pennsylvania. The hull is a mix of Eastern White, and Atlantic White Cedar, from Maine and NJ.

The custom bronze castings are from New Dublin Ship Fittings (newdublinshipfittings.com) and Port Townsend Foundry (porttownsendfoundry.com). New Dublin Ship Fittings also built the handsome ash blocks. A few additional items, incluidng the roller furling hardware and the running rigging were secured from R&W Rope (RWRope.com). The paint is from George Kirby Jr. Paint Company (kirbypaint.com), and the sails are from Gambell and Hunter Sailmakers (gambellandhunter.net).

The boat is in Brooksville, Maine, and sails from a mooring in Buck’s Harbor. Last summer our family got to know the boat while exploring the islands along Penobscot Bay. Questions can be forwarded to Brett at Bretthart76@gmail.com